Intra-ASEAN Trade

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CEIC Gallery/World Trend+ Database/Emerging Economies - January 21, 2016Summary
The implement of Asean Economic Community (AEC) blueprint accounts for a growth in intra-ASEAN trade over the years. An effort to eliminate tariff protection, an ASEAN Free Trade Area (AFTA), has been achieved in some member states, specifically, ASEAN 6 countries including Brunei, Malaysia, Indonesia, Philippines, Singapore, and Thailand. Under AFTA, these six member states cut tariffs on nearly 8,000 items. On the other hand, four of the less developed ASEAN countries (CLMV) including Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar and Vietnam will have a further period to phase in the tariff elimination. The elimination of tariffs leads to reductions of product price throughout ASEAN. On top of that it helps to encourage higher market competition as ASEAN will be integrated into a single market which makes ASEAN stronger and larger with a massive population.
The trends over the past decade for various indicators indicates a significant growth in intra-regional merchandise trade integration within ASEAN.
All charts below provide key information and trends of intra-ASEAN trade.
Chart 1 - 3
Chart 1 – 3 display overall trends of intra-ASEAN trade. As a result of a significant progression in eliminating tariffs on intra-ASEAN trade with zero rates on 99 percent of tariff lines for the ASEAN 6 since 2010, intra-ASEAN trade has increased at a faster pace. However, the growth started to slow down since 2012.
Intra-ASEAN share of exports to total exports slightly dropped in 2014, while intra-ASEAN share of imports to total imports marginally rose after a continue plummet since 2011.
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From 1 July 1996, foreign currency securities sold under repurchase agreements are retained for accounting purposes as foreign currency investments in the Bank's balance sheet, in accordance with standard accounting treatment. For the purpose of reporting foreign exchange reserves, however, securities sold under repurchase agreements are excluded.
Chart 4 - 7
Chart 4 – 7 demonstrate trends of intra-ASEAN exports and imports in both aggregated ASEAN and individual aspects.
Intra-ASEAN exports was boosted by the AFTA agreement in 2010, then remained stable in 2011 – 2014. However, intra-ASEAN exports in CLMV continued remarkably rising until 2013, before remaining constant in 2014. Among member states, Singapore ranked highest in intra-ASEAN exports, following by Malaysia and Thailand respectively.
Intra-ASEAN imports remained in positive trend after recovering from global financial crisis in 2009, especially in CLMV, there was a significant growth in 2014, while ASEAN 6 experienced a slight decline in the same year. Compared to other member states, same as intra-ASEAN exports, Singapore also ranked on top in importing products from the region, following by Malaysia and Indonesia respectively. However, intra-ASEAN imports in Singapore has decreased over the past years.
Chart 8 - 12
Chart 8 – 12 illustrate a trend of intra-ASEAN exports by member states and their exports destination.
Each member state has a vary exports market, as Vietnam for Brunei in 2013, Singapore for Cambodia and Malaysia in 2012 and 2014 respectively, Malaysia and Indonesia for Singapore in 2014. For Thailand, its exports are slightly more diversified with no single partner country.
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